Wednesday, September 1, 2010

So, today I stumbled upon this on the glorious internet, an 8-Bit version of Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. I was quite intrigued by this, as I had wondered how the guys at Ubisoft could have made the original Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X into an 8-bit game. As it seemed, this game was made to promote H.A.W.X. 2, which certainly isn't a bad idea considering every game can do with a positive promotion, but a game is risky business, as if you provide bad promotion, people are less likely to buy your product. Will Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X - The 8-Bit game succeed in it's intended purpose? Click Read More to find out!

Instead of a 8-bit version of the first game, players are presented with something completely different, namely an overhead shoot em up which is very reminiscent to the game ''1942'' Now, when I saw the first 8-Bit graphics, I was quite pleasantly, surprised. The story is told through various screens and is fairly obvious, your missions are also presented in such way. Never does the game really break it's 8-bit style, and consistency is certainly a good thing, for an 8-Bit game, this little thing certainly looks good.

Now, on to the gameplay, as I said, it's a fairly basic vertical scrolling SCHMUP. You get to choose different planes, which are all displayed in their 8-Bit Glory, and again they look really great. When presented in the hangar, all planes look differently, and also, all planes look differently in-game as well. The planes themselves have three stats, Speed, Armor and Offense, and all the planes handle differently, so whether you want to be a big slow tank of destruction of a nimble plane, there is always a plane for you.

Each plane also feels differently in-game as well, you can clearly feel the difference between a more nimble plane and a stronger bulkier plane. No matter what speed you are going though, enemies will always be trigger happy and fire at you. The screen always has a nice amount of enemies flying by shooting at you, in seemingly random patterns, so expect to be on the move quite a bit. Luckily you can shoot those pests down using your own weapons, and thankfully an ''Auto-Fire'' Button is included, so you can toggle Auto-Fire on or off, depending whether you want to mash away at the keys or want to focus more on dodging.

They even got an unlock-able plane for you completionists out there....

There are three weapons to obtain, missiles, the straight shot, and the spreading shot. All can be upgraded by getting the appropriate upgrade from a destroyed supply helicopter, which can also drop extra lives or a power-up with vaporizes anything on the screen. There is a downside to it though, you automatically switch to the weapon you pick up, For example, if you maxed out your missiles, and accidentally pick up a spreader shot from a helicopter because of dodging incoming fire, then you don't get to keep your missiles, but instead your weapons changes to said weakest spread shot.

Fortunately Ubisoft planted in a solution for that, the ERS. See the ERS as your panic button, if you really con't want to get hit fo a while, then with the press of a button you get temporary invincibility, which can really help with the boss-fights (Yes, there are boss-fights) and with the more crowded screens in the gam. If you are lucky enough you can even pick up a new ERS from a supply helicopter.

We get it Mr. Battleship, you don't want me here.

Overall, H.A.W.X 2, The 8-Bit game is a fun little game, a good way to pass the time, and a good promotion as well. People who will play this will surely be left with a positive experience, even if the difficulty is a little high for most standard players. Also, with exclusive content for the actual H.A.W.X 2, it provides something to look forward to to those who have already pre-ordered the game, or to those who are doubting to get H.A.W.X. 2. Even if you are not planning to get H.A.W.X 2 or never even heard of the franchise, play it anyways, having a bit of fun can never hurt, right? And to Ubisoft, I say congratulations on a positive promotion!

Wow, reminds me of Raptor: Call of Shadows from way back when in the days of shareware games... sadly, this doesn't look like it holds a candle to that, but I might give it a try for the nostalgia factor.

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A gamer who always looks beyond the first glance. With a passion for writing and gaming, the ''Melancritic'' Matt Tosiek will provide honest reviews about all sorts of games.